https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35008392

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A Senior Engineer’s Guide to the System Design Interview | Hacker News — Read on news.ycombinator.com/item

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https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34896626

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Interesting post and discussion at Hacker’s News about advancing as Individual Contributor. Still debating which way to go.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34662394

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I am a big fan of cheap VPSs. I start many personal projects, bring up a VPS, play around and then wipe it. Never have to worry about accidentally running up bill in 100s or 1000s of dollars. I run this blog on $4 server.

So this was interesting to read how far can a cheap VPS go.

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Ayden was a curious and adventurous five-year-old boy who loved nothing more than riding in his favorite monster truck, Blue Thunder. He spent hours each day practicing and perfecting his skills, always dreaming of one day becoming a professional Monster Jam driver.

One day, as Ayden was practicing his jumps in the backyard, he suddenly found himself soaring higher and higher into the air. Before he knew it, he was hurtling through the atmosphere, leaving the Earth far behind.

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Ayden: Baba, American flag is better than Texas flag.

Me: How come?

Ayden: Because it has more stars!

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I think a lot of people would love to live their life as if they are on a permanent vacation. Before I was married, I didn’t make a lot of money but felt like that everyday was a vacation.

For me, vacation means:

1. Eating out/not cooking
2. Not cleaning
3. Spending time outside
4. Not working
5. Ready to travel

Eating out is cheaper than cooking, if you are not picky. I ate mostly fast food. Of course, it is not healthy but it is vacation. Also it is still better than overeating home-cooked meals.

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Simplification of dev setup:

1. VPS
2. Docker
3. vim/neovim
4. iPad Pro 11 + Keyboard
5. Blink shell

Apps to develop

1. web apps
2. apis
3. text generator using ai
4. number crunching/data science python/R
5. blogs
6. command line games and apps
7. php/js/go/python/ruby/c/c++

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Yesterday, I ordered some tissue culture and planting supplies.

Indoors plants market is huge. There is a lot to learn. There are new terms, new communities to join. But it is pretty exciting.

The main reasons I decided to explore this space is because:

1. It is slower paced. Cannot pull all-nighter to make plants grow faster.
2. My kids should enjoy it. And I can get them involved.
3. There are interesting methods to master like creating perfect environment for optimal growth, growing exotic plants, etc.
4. It can be scaled to more commercial operations, renting a greenhouse or something similar.
5. Plants are good for the planet.
6. If it fails, I will have plants for our home.

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